GREENLAND SHARK. 529 



therefore extremely difficult to kill. It is actually unsafe to 

 trust the hand in its mouth, though the head be separated 

 from the body. Though the Whale-fishers frequently slip 

 into the water where Sharks abound, there has been no in- 

 stance, that I have heard of, of their ever having been at- 

 tacked by the Shark." 



" Besides dead Whales, the Sharks feed on small fishes 

 and crabs. A fish, in size and form resembling a Whiting, 

 was found in the stomach of one that I killed ; but the pro- 

 cess of digestion had gone so far, that its species could not 

 be satisfactorily discovered. In swimming, the tail only is 

 used : the rest of its fins being spread out to balance it, are 

 never observed in motion but when some change of direction 

 is required. 



" To the posterior edge of the pupil of the eye is attached 

 a white vermiform substance, one or two inches in length. 

 Each extremity of it consists of two filaments, but the cen- 

 tral part is single. The sailors imagine this Shark is blind, 

 because it pays not the least attention to the presence of a 

 man ; and is, indeed, so apparently stupid, that it never 

 draws back when a blow is aimed at it with a knife or lance." 



The eyes of this Greenland Shark, with the appendages, 

 were brought home by Captain W. Scoresby, preserved in 

 spirits, and submitted to Sir David Brewster, who gave one 

 specimen to Dr. Grant. The appendage proved to be a new 

 species of parasitic animal, which Dr. Grant named Lerntea 

 elongata, and described it, adding a figure of it, in the 

 seventh volume of the Edinburgh Journal of Science. The 

 imperfection of the vision of the fish was probably produced 

 by the various perforations made in the cornea by the tenta- 

 cula of this new species of Lerntea ; as it is by those organs 

 that these parasitic animals retain their hold and live upon 

 the fluids extracted from the part to which they adhere, 



VOL. II. 2 M 



